SOUTHERN AFRICA

Unions under threat as Zimbabwe’s conflict deepens

What Zimbabwean Congress of Trade Unions general secretary Morgan Tsvangirai told Cosatu

When Cosatu CEC delegates had finished listening to an input about the growing crisis in Zimbabwe, one union leader remarked that the input had made many comrades, especially those in the public sector, feel a little uneasy.

The input was given by Morgan Tsvangirai, general secretary of the Zimbabwean Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) and general secretary of the Southern African Trade Union Coordinating Council (Satucc), which Cosatu is part of.

Much of what Tsvangirai said about the Zimbabwean government’s economic policies — and their impact on the lives of ordinary people — was all too familiar to Cosatu union leaders, who have been very vocal in their criticism of Gear.

But perhaps most disturbing was the extent to which the conflict has developed, with the Zimbabwean government pitted against the trade unions and other sections of civil society.

Tsvangirai said that, despite the Mugabe government’s stated commitment to a socialist programme after independence in 1980, economic difficulties became more pronounced. This was made worse by drought, recession, retrogressive economic development, foreign currency shortages and a lack of industrial development.

The government found itself in the hands of the IMF and the World Bank and began to introduce Economic Structural Adjustment Programmes — ESAPs — or SAPs for short. This SAP phase, as Tsvangirai calls it, started in 1990.

The government began to move away from redistributive economic policies towards measures aimed at attracting foreign investment. There was a reduction in government expenditure. Investment in health, education and other social services was cut. Privatisation and public service downsizing led to retrenchments.

All of this was nothing new to Cosatu and its affiliates, especially those in the public service, with threats of 300 000 job losses in the next 18 months and ongoing teacher retrenchments.

But, unlike in South Africa, where important worker and trade union rights are entrenched in the constitution and in legislation, Tsvangirai said the creation of workers committees after independence in Zimbabwe had undermined worker participation and trade union rights. "ZCTU became a junior partner in the process, with no meaningful role to play. The government announced minimum wages and there was no defined role for unions."

This was made worse after 1990 as the government moved to create "a climate conducive to investment". The 1992 Labour Relations Amendment Act, according to Tsvangirai, further undermined labour’s position. Whereas previously unions had won recognition of majority unions for each sector, there were now multiple unions. "The powers of workers committees were further strengthened and this created confusion within the ZCTU."

An "artificial dispute" was created over affiliates’ contributions to the federation. This had almost caused a split in the federation, but Tsvangirai says the ZCTU managed the crisis. The mining and transport unions left the federation but later returned.

In 1992, the ZCTU launched a major campaign against ESAPs, which they said stood for "Extra Suffering of the African People". The unions complained that they had been introduced through the back door, without public debate and consultation.

From 1994 to the present, unions staged a series of worker actions and strikes at national and industrial level. The biggest mutiny against SAPs was an eight-week public service strike in 1996. This was followed by a two-month health sector strike. "The government dealt with this strike not as a labour dispute but as a political challenge," Tsvangirai explained. About 2000 nurses and 200 doctors were fired.

The crisis deepened last year when the country’s war veterans began a vigorous campaign for the payment of pensions, which had been interrupted after widespread corruption had been uncovered.

After much public pressure, Mugabe relented and agreed to pay the more than 50 000 war veterans an amount of R50 000 each, with a monthly gratuity of R2000.

The problem was that the government had not budgetted for this amount of about 40 billion Zimbabwe dollars. So, Tsvangirai explained, the government decided that the only source for this massive amount was "the people". It announced that a war veterans levy — an additional tax — would be imposed on workers.

This met widespread resistance. The ZCTU said workers were already overtaxed, with 44% of their income going to tax. The federation also questioned the economic wisdom of pouring such a large amount in something which would not build the productive capacity of the economy and warned that it would have an inflationary effect. However, their warnings fell on deaf ears.

On December 9 last year, the ZCTU organised what Tsvangirai called "the most important protest since independence". Mass participation was overwhelming and cut across all sectors of society.

The ZCTU wrote to the government asking it to revoke the tax increases, to do something to prevent spiralling food prices and to start negotiations with trade unions.

By January this year, basic costs had increased by 40%, sparking "food riots" which lasted three days and which were only quelled after the army was brought in. Tsvangirai says the ZCTU did not organise the food riots. Initiated "by communities", they were largely spontaneous, reflecting widespread discontent.

ZCTU gave the government an ultimatum to act on its demands or face further action. When the federation again received no response, the ZCTU general council decided to call a mass stayaway.

"The labour movement was under tremendous pressure from its membership and ordinary citizens to call for more prolonged demonstrations," Tsvangirai said. "The ZCTU was aware that many sectors of the population were really itching to take to the streets, irrespective of violent police and military action."

Mass stayaway

On 3 and 4 March, workers throughout the country participated in the ZCTU mass stayaway throughout the country, calling on government to scrap the unpopular five percent "development levy", a 15% tax on pension profits and a 2,5% sales tax hike.

Tsvangirai said the ZCTU has faced a barrage of threats following its mass action. Two days after the December 1997 ZCTU-led protest, Tsvangirai himself was severely assaulted and left for dead by unknown assailants in what was seen as an assassination attempt.

After the March stayaway, industry and commerce minister Nathan Shamuyarira said strikers and employers would be punished for their actions. Mugabe threatened on national television that the state had so many "degrees in violence" and said he now regarded the ZCTU as an opposition political party. The day after the stayaway, the ZCTU’s Bulawayo offices were set on fire. The action also raised fears that Mugabe would invoke presidential powers to deregister the ZCTU.

Tsvangirai dismissed suggestions that the ZCTU would transform itself into a political party, but said the federation would continue to represent its members interests beyond the shopfloor.

He said the stayaway "had established the ZCTU’s credentials as a significant and powerful civic organisation which has the unquestionable mandate of a very broad section of the Zimbabwe population".

The ZCTU, Tsvangirai told Cosatu, was seen as the nucleus of widespread economic discontent in the country. "When workers issues are not resolved at the shopfloor, we have to engage at a national level and the whole thing becomes politicised," he said.

The Mugabe government has not yet responded to ZCTU demands, but Tsvangirai reported that the federation had received an invitation from the president’s office to discuss the economic crisis. The last time the ZCTU met Mugabe was in 1995 and, before that, in 1988.

The ZCTU has had no formal participation in policy making and Zimbabwe has no institution such as Nedlac. The government’s National Economic Consultative Forum is made up of handpicked individuals but has no institutional representation and cannot make binding decisions. The ZCTU has put forward proposals for a structure in which to engage in economic debate and has produced a document, "Beyond ESAP", which outlines the federation’s alternative macro-economic proposals.

"You can’t have an economic strategy which just emphasises external relations and export-orientation. You need to encourage internal consumption, investment and redistribution," Tsvangirai said, adding that the market alone could not resolve the country’s economic problems, particularly skewed development and marginalisation of the rural areas.

He also argues for constitutional reform to ensure the democratisation of society and greater participation of all stakeholders in governance. ZCTU is part of the Constitutional Reform Movement made up of a wide range of civil society bodies.

"The ZCTU needs to further strengthen its links with other civic and fraternal organisations, explaining its functions and plans, and in return asking for solidarity in times of need," Tsvangirai said.

"The government must swallow its pride and agree to come to the negotiating table to genuinely negotiate solutions to the national problems, and not just talk for the sake of public relations."

But so far the ZCTU’s proposals have fallen on deaf ears, leaving the federation with little option but to use other means to make their voice heard.

Tsvangirai said the ZCTU was in the process of consulting with workers on further mass action, including a possible five-day stayaway, to pressurise the government to meet their demands. "The ZCTU has the capacity to mobilise. It now depends on the government’s reaction to those demands."

POPULAR ECONOMICS SERIES

What is capitalism?

Often we speak of the South African economy as a capitalist system. We argue that capitalism can produce widespread poverty, unemployment, exploitation, and inequality. We push for the transformation of capitalism into a socialist alternative. But what do we actually mean when we speak of capitalism? This article in the popular economics series begins to answer the important question: what is capitalism?

Capitalism refers to a social system which cannot be reduced to the economy alone. Capitalism has important social, cultural, gender, legal, racial, technological, and intellectual elements. However, all capitalist societies have economies which work in similar ways. The focus of this article is on these characteristics of a capitalist economy.

What makes a capitalist economy different from other types of economies? There are four key features of any capitalist economy:

1. Production is for profit. Businesses produce goods and services in order to earn profits. These profits then belong to the owners of the business — the capitalists.

2. Workers are separated from the means of production. This means that workers do not own or control such things as the finances, the land, the buildings, the equipment, and the computers which allow a business to operate.

3. Workers are forced to sell the one thing they do own — their labour — in exchange for a wage. This wage is then used to purchase food, housing, clothing, and other necessities.

4. Businesses use the labour of workers to produce goods and services for exchange in a market. They do not produce goods and services for their own use. If businesses cannot exchange their goods or services for money, they cannot earn profits and the system breaks down.

Any economic activity which has these characteristics can be called capitalist. Notice there are two general classes within a capitalist economy — the capitalist class and the working class.

While all capitalist economies share similar characteristics, there can also be important differences. A capitalist economy might have many medium-sized capitalists competing with each other. This type of economy is often called competitive capitalism. On the other hand, an economy might be characterised by huge corporations which dominate economic activity — this would be called monopoly capitalism.

Some capitalist economies are characterised by substantial state intervention, including welfare programmes to alleviate poverty, regulation of the market, strong protection of workers, and provision of public services. Such economic systems are often called social democracies. Finally, there has been increasing attention paid to a new form of capitalism in which international markets have become increasingly integrated — global capitalism.

While it is easy to identify a traditional capitalist relationship — for example, a worker in a clothing factory being paid low wages — other economic relationships are more difficult. Think about the public service. Public service workers do not own the means of production and they exchange their labour for a wage. However, many of the products of the public service — public education, health care, and provision of basic infrastructure — are not produced for exchange in a market and are not produced for profit. Therefore, while the public service shares some characteristics of a capitalist system, there are important differences. Nevertheless, in South Africa, trends to form public-private partnerships, to increase user-fees, and to out-source certain functions to the private sector mean that the public service will begin to look more and more like traditional capitalism.

Another example of an economic relationship which cannot be easily called capitalist is unpaid household labour (often called reproductive labour) primarily performed by women.

Women work in the household, preparing meals; caring for children, the sick, and the elderly; and maintaining the home. Women performing labour in the household do not receive a wage and services are not produced for exchange — they are produced for use. Therefore, household economic relationships are often not capitalist. This does not mean that capitalism does not benefit from such labour. In fact, it depends critically on unpaid labour to sustain itself.

Transforming a capitalist economy into a socialist economy requires changing the basic conditions upon which capitalism is organised.

The next several articles in the popular economics series will continue to look at the nature of capitalism and will explore alternative economic systems.